Childish things
by VegetandAru
Summary: Severus Snape- an overview of his life from age four to adulthood
1. Trains

When I was four, I wanted a small wooden train set that I'd seen in the window of a large toy shop in the decent part of town. I passed the shop everyday on my way back home with my mother from school and everyday I'd ask her if we could stop whilst I pressed my nose to the window of the shop and watched in jealous silence as other children, richer children, dragged their parents into the shop to buy them one.

For three weeks in the run up to Christmas, my mother and I stopped to do this and for three weeks I admired the little blue carriages with their silver clasps to attach them all together and the bright gold writing on the side of the little train. There were red trains as well, but I didn't like them as much, they had big green clashing, Christmasy lettering on the side and I far preferred the little dignified blue ones.

On Christmas day I unwrapped my present and sitting amidst the bright wrapping was the little red train. My father never noticed my crestfallen look but my mother did and, although I quickly replaced it with the expected happy look, she moved to wrap her arm around my shoulders.

"I'm sorry baby," she cooed into my ear quietly. "It was the only colour left." I tried not to feel disappointed, but at four you're a selfish little bugger and my mother clearly saw that I was unhappy with the little train. My mind kept straying back to the pretty blue one I'd admired for so many weeks.

In the evening, after dinner, my father went to the pub down the road and my mother scooped up my train in one hand and caught my little fingers in her other and took both myself and the present out into the merrily decorated hall.

There was a small cupboard under the stairs where our shoes were normally kept; my mother put my train in the cupboard and told me to turn around. She made me face the wall and told me to count to ten, as though we were playing hide and seek and I spoke slowly, stumbling over the number eight. I turned around at ten and at my expectant look she threw up her hands in mock shock and cried "Goodness, is that ten already!", then smiled at me and opened the cupboard. She withdrew a little blue train with silver clasps and gold writing with a cheery 'ta-da!' and I stood stunned for a moment until she pressed the train into my hand and ushered me off into the lounge to play.

"No little boy should get the wrong present on Christmas," she tutted "Now go amuse yourself until daddy gets home, mommy has the dishes to clear away."


	2. Baby

"Wilhelmina? Eileen's going into labour, I need you to look after Severus... No... no, she's barely dilated, she's certainly not begun bearing down yet... Yes! Of course she's fine, do you think I can't even look after my own wife! She's fine, the midwife is here and she says it'll be hours yet... Yes, okay, just come quickly, I don't want Severus here if anything goes wrong... I'm sure it won't go wrong Winnie... Just get here, please, I'm call Dorothy... yes, all right, that's a good idea, you call her. Goodbye Winn."

Severus heard the distinctive click of the telephone receiver being put down. He was sitting at the bottom of the stairs and straining to hear what was going on. He wasn't allowed in the lounge, something funny was going on, the carpets had been taken up and his nanna had spent the last few hours in there sterilising everything. His mother was crying and his father's voice had sounded distinctly strained as he'd spoke on the phone to Severus' aunt Winnie.

"It's coming, Toby, God, it's coming."

"Don't be silly dear, the baby won't be coming for a while yet."

"No, no-oo. Toby, don't listen to her she's wrong, oh. Oh! I'm bearing down, Toby! Please she's wrong."

"Tch, now dear, you rest right there and I'll give you an injection to relax you, it'll tide you over until Margaret gets here, I'm going off shift soon."

"Ah! Ah! No! Toby, don't let her, it's coming, please, the baby's coming."

"Eileen..."

"Mr Snape, I can't help but feeling you are perhaps in the way dear, you go check on the little boy and I'll stay here until Marg comes."

"Will she be all right."

"Yes of course, it's natural for women to be distressed like this during labour, but she's not fully dilated yet, the babe won't be coming until morning and she'll need to relax so that she doesn't cause damage to herself or the baby. You go dear, watch the little one."

Severus could here his mother wailing and a moment later his father left the lounge, white faced and shaking as though he were ill. He sat next to Severus on the stairs with his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees, sitting side to side with his little son.

The grandfather clock, tick, tick, ticked round until a car pulled up into the drive and the door burst open without anyone knocking.

Severus' Aunt Winn rushed in looking stressed and her eyes dropped to Severus who was still sitting although his father and stood up when his sister had burst in. She stalked in two quick stepped to his side and scooped him up into her arms pressing kisses to his hair with her red painted lips.

"Ooooh, you come on now darling, you're mummy and daddy need some time but we'll come back when things are quieter yes?" He nodded against her shoulder blade and she carried him from the house without another word.

Tobias, stood in the doorway and watched his sister climb into the back of the automobile still holding his son, his brother in law sat beside her looking tired and the chauffeur pulled the British racing green car away from the pavement and down the street.

His son was gone from his view now but he could still here his wife sobbing softly from the lounge. The telephone 'br-rringged' and he closed the door and stepped into the madhouse that was Spinner's end.


	3. Malvern

The year after my little sister's tragic still birth and traumatic resuscitation by the doctor, my father made the decision to send me to a private boarding school. My aunt Wilhelmina paid the fee and off I went to Malvern Boy's School.

It was a beautiful school, very small and consisting of an old converted manner house. As my father drove up the steep hill to the school in our old battered car, he told me that there were only just 60 boys in the year, all ranging from age 5 to 11 and that we were all split into houses.

Looking back, I think at that age I found the idea exciting, it would be my first time away from home. Properly away from home I mean, not just to my aunt's or my grandparent's. I would be away from my father's drunkenness, my mama's strained optimism and baby Erica's wailing.

Our car grated on the rubble of the school's front drive and two women came out to meet us. One, tall and crooked and the other a bustling, small lady in a green pinafore with a round face and a rounder little body.

"Mr Snape I assume." The tall woman called as my father came round the other side of the car to pull me out. He rested one hand on the back of my neck, holding me in place, and with the other he shook both of the teachers hands.

"And this must be little Severus. Hello Severus dear, I'm Mrs Blower; the House Mother." The short, dumpy Mrs Blower smiled at me and offered me a hand to lead me inside. She must have only been five foot tall, and at the time, such a little boy, I felt sure that she was nearly as wide as that too.

My father used the hand on the back of my neck to push me forwards and shyly I reached out to take Mrs Blower's soft warm hand.

"Come on dear. We'll let your daddy and Headmistress Taylor talk for a while whilst we get you settled in shall we?" She led me into a large entrance hall, from which two corridors and two staircases siphoned off. She led me up the right staircase and onto a creaking second floor.

"This is the students area. You'll be in a room with four other boys all of different ages, all in the same house. Now wont that be nice." She let go of my hand to dig a set of jingling keys from her pocket and open a door into a little room with a large fireplace and a great window that looked over the back of the Malvern hills.

In one corner was a bed with a large medicine cabinet above it, and in another corner was a little sink with a huge wicker basket beneath it. She went to the basket and riffled through it. "Sit on the bed love. We'll find you a uniform. Now you'll have to put this in the laundry when it's dirty and come and get another one. But your blazer has to last the term so just bring it back if it gets a mark and I'll wash that out by hand."

"Yes ma'am."

"Ah, here we are, you try this on." She splayed out a little green uniform on the bed for me, a pair of black shorts and braces, a white shirt, awful bottle green socks and jumper, little black shoes and an equally horrendous bottle green blazer with maroon lining and finish to the cuffs and collar. The jumper was a little big but other than that it fit just fine.

"Now then. You'll be in Wilherby house, you'll be able to tell who are the other boys in Wilherby because you all wear bottle green. Okay dear."

"Yes ma'am." She clasped her hands in front of her and tipped her head affectionately to the side with a smile.

"My, don't you look a picture Severus. Come on then," she extended her hand for me to take again. "Lets find you a room shall we."

There were six rooms down stairs and then little steps that led further up where there were another six rooms. For that first year I was in a room two doors to the right of Mrs Blower's little office.

When she opened the door I heard an instant "Shh! Shh!" and the four other inhabitants of the room (all in ghastly bottle green) settled instantly so that each was sitting on the edge of a separate little bed.

"All right lads. I won't spoil your fun for long. This is Severus, he's new to Wilherby this year. Get him settled will you?" Then she pushed me gently inside and tugged the little door closed.

Two of the boys were twins with thin, tanned faces, straight mousey hair to their chins and sharp, dark eyes. There was a small boy, delicately framed, like a girl, with wide blue eyes and golden curls and a permanent flush to his otherwise white cheeks. Then there was a tall boy, built like an ox with hair, cropped like a soldier, short and flat on top. It was bright red and his fair skin bore ugly orange freckles.

When the House Mother was gone one of the twins begin bouncing on the bed and when he spoke it was in a heavy northern accent, "I'm Jack, I'm eight." he declared proudly. "That's my brother, Ben. He's Thomas-" he pointed to the little blonde

"And _I'm_ Gregory." the red headed boy butted in, stepping up close to me and crossing his arms across his chest. He must have been one of the oldest in the school, he certainly looked eleven.

He was so close that I had to step back away from him, I stumbled on my own bag, which had been brought up to the room before me, and I ended up sprawled and flailing on the carpet.

The boy, Gregory, snorted with laughter, and even the twins tittered a little. But Thomas came up and took my hand a dragged me to the last free bed in the room, he pushed me down to sit on it then sat beside brightly. By the side of my bed was a fire escape door- painted red with a little sign on of a little green man running out a door and big white lettering saying 'only for use in emergencies' printed at the top.

Before Thomas could open his mouth to say a word Gregory stalked across to us- then past us and threw the fire escape open. It was only the fourth of September and the air was still warm. Little steps led down from the fire escape, to a little path that led down the side of the Malvern Hill we were perched on and right down to the carpark where my daddy had dropped me off.

I peered over the the green hills- it was five pm and the sun was beginning to dip in the sky. The long shadow of Malvern Boy's was cast over the lawn. Just past the shadow, further down the very same hill was the village of Malvern where, during the war, little boys and girls had been sent away to stay with families that didn't know- praying that one day they would see their own again. As I sat and looked over this sight, Gregory's huge body blocked the view and I looked up to find him sneering down at me.

"You know," he began, conversationally. "There was a boy here a few years ago, when I was younger, who was in this room. He strangled the boy in that bed the threw the body down the fire escape before running off. He comes back sometimes- we've heard him trying to open the fire escape door!" Gregory gave Severus a pitying look before strolling back to his own bed- way across the other side of the room- "I wouldn't want that bed if I were you! Especial in summer an' all with the door open to let the air in. Just scream if he comes for you!" He flopped down onto his own bed, hiding his smirk in the pillows.

The twins were looking at him, wide eyed and terrified then they turned their faces to look at me with sorry eyes. I looked horrifyingly up at Thomas. The tiny boy was kneeling on my bed behind me, arms folded across his chest.

"I dant baleve a bloody word av it! I'll swap beds wif yah if yah went Sev'rus!' he exclaimed defiantly. I shook my head so as not to seem like a coward and Gregory snorted with laughter into his pillow. I threw an anguished look at the open fire escape but Thomas had moved from besides to across to his own bag before returning to sit cross legged behind me. He held out for my inspection a brush with a turtle shell back- it must have cost a small fortune. He withdrew it with nothing but a smile and began pulling it through my hair.

"Yeh hairs so straight! I 'ate mine but me mam sez I kant cut me curls off!" he complained, then his voice rose happily in song and he began to intone from his space behind my head. "Ginger nut, fell in the brook, the fish jumped up and swallowed him up and that was the end of ginger nut!" over and over again with the pretty brush sweeping through my hair until Gregory threw a pillow at him and he fell off the bed with a how of laughter.

The rest of the evening was relatively peaceful with a first-night-dinner of stew with dumplings brought up to our rooms for us. However, needless to say, I slept not a wink that night!


	4. Rolly

"Rolly! Rolly!' Thomas was up and at the window- his screeching voice calling out to the girl on her bike riding up the hill like it did every single morning. The coming of Yvonne Roland was my daily alarm- had been for years. We were seven, Thomas and I, the twins two years older and Gregory had left school a while back- I could hardly remember him but for his ginger hair...

Anyway- yes. Yvonne Roland was our age, Thomas' and mine. Thomas was in love with her- so was I if I was going to be honest! And the twins, even little Jamie who had only started the school this year, was not immune to her charms! She went to Malvern Girls school a few hills away but lived in the village. Every morning and every evening she would leave home on her little push peddle bike and would pass our school on the way to her own. Her skirts would be pushed up as she peddled and sometimes we would even catch a glimpse of knee- Thomas swears that once he saw some thigh but not even I was about to believe that!

She was not spectacularly pretty but she was the only girl that we ever saw and that made her special.

She had toffee coloured hair in a pony tail down her back and big green eyes (like a cats) that would peer up at us when she'd pause on her bike to tell Thomas-

"Bugger off!"

And he'd smile and by this time we'd all be at the window, Thomas leaning half out of it to smile at her and myself right at his side. Jack's elbow was resting on top of my head as he strained for a view and I could feel Jamie trying to shove between us but I held my place firmly beside the unmovable boy that was Thomas.

He was the only one ever brave enough to speak to her and she'd yell at him to go away but she's blush and smile anyway- I think she liked him back.

He was calling to her that she should write him some time and that they could set up a letter system or something. She replied exasperatedly that she didn't want to talk to him and that they'd have to exchange letters when they saw each other in the mornings and evenings and that that was silly because they could just talk to each other then anyway! no need for the hassle of letter writing. And she STILL did not want to talk to him.

She caught my eye and smiled and I smiled back and blushed. Thomas was still trying to talk to her, almost falling out the window now, but she just waved goodbye to myself and the called bye to the Twins and Jamie- studiously ignoring Thomas all the while, and peddled off again.

We all with drew from the window, the twins shedding their pj tops and Jamie darting out the door to the communal showers, I just sat back on the edge of my bed whilst Thomas slipped down the wall to sit beneath the window sill with his hands clutched to his breast. "I'm in love! Sev'rus, I. Am. In. Love! Ain't she the most fantastical of girls?" I nodded and continued to watch him until finally he released an over dramatic sigh and stood to get ready for the school day- dreamy look plastered on his face.


End file.
